Free Your Mind

As they approach an opponent, many exponents are already consumed by anticipation of the fight. It is the social way of thinking - '"will I win", or "what happens if I lose"? As always, a fighter’s inner resistance is their weakest link.

If you are facing multiple opponents then you have time and energy limitations. Your mind does not have time to deal with distractions. It is important then to free your mind of the typical thoughts that consume fighters when they face a single opponent. One of the best ways to do this when facing a group is to accelerate and focus on exits.

Keeping Focused

Defending yourself against multiple opponents requires you to have a greater focus than when you are facing a single opponent. Importantly you cannot allow yourself to be distracted from the goal of your progression to safety.

You cannot indulge in actions that slow you down such that they split your intentions or split your energy. Most of these actions come from our desire to control what is going on around us. It is a hangover from our usual day to day interactions where we interact with other individuals as we try to get what we want.

If you focus on one opponent then you will lose sight of the rest of the attacking group and your survival response to get to safety becomes lost. Your intention has been split between the exit and the opponent you got stuck on.

As the attacking group becomes more dangerous, your physical actions have to be such that they don't impede your accelerated progression to an exit. A conscious defensive manoeuvre using an arm or leg action can slow you down just enough so that another attacker can get to you, and you can then find yourself fighting two or more opponents at the same time.